Toops decision tomorrow

The Toops store in Napier. Photo / Paul Taylor

A decision on the proposed closure of Hawke's Bay's only Toops store will be made tomorrow, brand owner Foodstuffs says.

The Napier Toops store is one of five cash-and-carry outlets servicing the grocery and hospitality trade across the North Island whose future has been under review by supermarket giant Foodstuffs.

The proposal to close the Napier outlet, which employs about 20 staff, has been met with anger from its trade customers.

But the company has said the size and location of the Onekawa store is not suitable for the large-format type of operation that is "the next step in our evolution".

As a result of the review, the company said last week it had entered into consultation with 128 Toops and Gilmours staff in its Napier, Rotorua, New Plymouth, Panmure and Henderson stores.

"We will be going back to the Napier team [tomorrow] to discuss the feedback received through the consultation process and advise of the decision," Foodstuffs North Island general manager retail, Doug Cochrane, said yesterday.

The First Union, whose membership includes retail workers, said yesterday it questioned the business case Foodstuffs was using to support the proposed closures of the five stores.

The union's general secretary, Robert Reid, said feedback from workers was there had been "little to no improvement in business" at other cash and carry stores where Foodstuffs had "transitioned" to a new owner-operator model under the Gilmours brand.

"It seems counterintuitive to extend a model which has yet to prove successful," he said.

But Mr Cochrane said the union's claim it was transitioning its seven remaining stores to a new brand was incorrect.

"The proposal is for all stores to come under the existing and stronger Gilmours brand," he said.

Foodstuffs supermarkets are all owner-operated under a model whereby the company owned the buildings and brand but the operator owned and ran the day-to-day business, he said.

"This is a very successful model due to the fact the owners live and work in the communities in which they operate which means they are best placed to understand, and meet, the needs of their local communities."